H20

- Never Stop Dreaming -

Nope, please don't be fooled by the title, it's not the scientific structure of water. That's the letter H followed by the number 20 which represents 2008 in Japanese calender format. H basically denotes Heisei (平成) Era and the number 20 simply denotes the 20th year running for the current Emperor of Japan. So literally when a new Emperor accends the throne, a new era will start beginning with the number 1. Still unclear? Well let Wiki HERE help you.

So I deemed everyone enjoyed their last few moments of 2007 to the fullest and welcomed 2008 with a huge bang? For me, I was in different places in Tokyo with Hudson and Russell. Covered Yokohama's famous Chinatown and bought myself a sweet Chinese costume to flout my Chinese roots dispite being a relatively displaced Asian misfit. Went to Shibuya's CA4LA to grab my winter headgear and finally partied for 3 consecutive days in Shibuya and Shinjuku. To sum it up in one phrase, it had to be "OUTTA CONTROL".

Here's the full report...

「December 30th, upon arriving at Tokyo around 1130 hours, headed straight to Shibuya's CA4LA to acquire my winter headgear and after that, rendevous with Hud and Russ in Shinjuku. Went down to Yokohama, topped the famous 69th storey building, fired away my juiced up EOS for those insane scenery and then headed to Chinatown for the much deserved feast, BAD BAD IDEA! Entire street was crammed both sides with neon lights, intricate carvings, people and food stalls. Different alleys veered from the main street and was equally tempting. Scouted almost the entire place for the ideal feast but was back to square one. Every stall, restaurant, joint looks equally good. Eventually, giving in to satisfying the basic need of survival, we settled for a buffet instead of the regular set meals. Ate almost like there was no tomorrow and drown gallons of beer. Presumably the damage was kept to a conservative estimate of

1. Surplus of at least 5kg per personel (attributing to 2 kg of fat, cholesterol and sodium)
2. 20 gallons of alcohol

After that went on a rampage around Shinjuku's famous Kabuki Street filled with filth and sleaze. Japanese men dressed in full tapered black suits scattered all around to tout innocent victims to nude clubs and bars while the remaining blacks pit it out with "All you can drink, touch, do anything" for a measly ¥4000 while the rest of the porn stores, adult toy stores, underground stores and legitimate food, convienient store and pubs filled in the missing blanks.

Headed down to Shibuya to escape the intense filth and ended up crashing in a rather cool club with Russ. Hud was wasted and no where to be found. Got back to the capsule inn at 0700 hours after catching the morning train on 31st Dec. Slept for a while till 1000 hours and checked out at 1100 hours. Down to just me and Russ with Hud backing out after being wasted the nite before, we wandered around aimlessly, while carefully trying to make sense where the missing cash was all in the midst of extreme alcohol intoxication. Ate a disgusting amount of Indian curry buffet for lunch with the intention to maximize our strength through the nite for the final countdown. Caught AVP 2, crashed into innocently looking porn filled stores and then finally bumping in some comic cafe to catch a 2 hour break. Ended up in Roppongi's GasPanic at nite to bid 2007 farewell. Continued partying all the way till Jan 1st in 2008 and caught the Shinkansen home in the morning.

A well-planned trip gone horribly wrong as fatigue, dehydration and serious respiratory inflammation plagued me on my return to kick start 2008. Yeah, way to go man...

End.」